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I’m a big fan of old-time radio. I love Lights Out, Weird Circle, X Minus One … it was horror at a time when people were maybe a little easier to scare. I find it kind of fascinating to learn what used to be deemed “horror” and compare it with today’s horror fare. (If you ask me, filmmakers seem to have given up on scaring people, and just want to shock people instead.) Many of these classic tales are nicely scary, and they ...

We all know Alfred Hitchcock, and his contributions to the horror and suspense genres are outstanding in both quality and quantity. Few have had a greater impact, particularly in the 60’s. I do not know for sure, but it seems that Hitchcock’s involvement in this album was probably very superficial … he provides introductions and links between stories and that’s about it. The intro has clever moments, and the links are cute. ...

I don’t recall where I found this little gem. It features pretty solid retellings of contemporary scary tales with musical accompaniment. It opens and closes with Edgar Allen Poe poems, and in between are urban legends you are probably already familiar with in some form or another.

Stories include variations on the kidney removal, the killer’s hook on the car, the downed telephone line in the cemetery, the ...

Famous Monsters of Filmland was a magazine whose original run lasted from 1958 until 1983. It started in response to renewed interest in the old horror films, thanks to syndicated television and plenty of late-night classic horror movie hosts. It featured articles about old and current films, and original artwork that is still considered some of the finest in the genre. In 1963, Famous Monsters of Filmland released this record, ...

It is easy to justify the reasons for ghost story albums read by the likes of Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, and Nelson Olmsted. The first two were arguably the most influential actors in the horror genre, and Olmsted narrated his own stories in the NBC radio series “Sleep No More”. But William Conrad? The Fatman of “Jake and the Fatman”? Seems like a stretch.

Turns out Conrad’s voice was featured in some 50’s ...